Seattle Actor Profile – Therese Diekhans

The last time Seattle Shakespeare Company audiences saw Therese, she was the sly Mistress Quickly in our production of The Merry Wives of Windsor (and you may have seen her brief cameo as Queen Elizabeth). In Coriolanus, she’s playing a character three times as cunning, Volumnia, the mother of Coriolanus.

Reading

“I was reading Tree of Smoke which is a novel about Vietnam. Really difficult. I got about half way through it and then said I have to stop now. So I’m going to have to pick it back up and read it again. The other thing I’m reading is a series by Ursula Le Guin: The Earthsea Cycle, which is now five or six books. I like her. She was raised as a Taoist and so her books are filled with that kind of philosophy which I find interesting…and I love sci-fi or rather science fantasy. So I like those two things: the philosophical and the fantasy at the same time.”

Listening

“I really only listen to the radio in the car. It’s usually NPR or Democracy Now. For music, it’s funny, I was just thinking about that today. I don’t generally turn on music when I’m at home. It’s really odd. My family, when I was growing up, we didn’t listen to a lot of music, so I’m in silence a lot. But when I do listen to music, I like Pink Martini; I love any of the classics: Beethoven, of course, Mozart, opera.”

Watching

“I haven’t seen a film in a while. Television I don’t really watch much, but I have been watching on Netflix and Hulu. I really love the series Bones, so I’ve been watching that. I’m also watching Once, which is that fairytale series. It’s kind of fun.”

Looking Forward to This Season

“I’m looking forward to getting out and seeing as much as I can. I’m looking forward to this show. I’m looking forward to the Book-It shows. I adore the Book-It style and the way they do that. Anything at Seattle Public Theatre and Theater Schmeater. And anything at Strawberry Workshop…I love Strawberry Workshop.”

Shakespeare Character That You Identify With

“I just played Paulina in The Winter’s Tale. She is very much a truth-teller and a plain speaker, and righteous. She is not going to let the king get away with lying to himself; creating a truth that is not real. She’s very firm and knows right from wrong, and will not allow anybody else to get away with it. I kind of do that in my own life. I sometimes get in trouble with people because when I do see something, I usually can’t control my tongue and I usually end up getting in trouble for it (laughs).”